Jeremy points out that the blending of the text“I DO NOT ALWAYS FEEL COLORED…” at the bottom of the page “could be more a comment on the comfort that blacks felt within their own communities contrasted with the negativity they felt directed at them by the whites.” I think that this is a very interesting observation. Towards the end of the doubl…[Read more]

Patricia Smith’s poems “Skinhead” and “Buried” both read as if a male was the one behind the words. Knowing about the author beforehand almost ruins the experience Smith sets with her imagery. However, knowing the author is a black woman who was born in the late 50’s gives context for the vivid sharp emotions felt in both poems.
Jeremy me…[Read more]

If language is communication, then written language is a way to clearly organize what we are trying to communicate not only to each other but to ourselves. Words, like images, need context in order to have understanding. Society relies on being able to define something by its relation to other things. To change the meaning of something, you change…[Read more]

Plath’s relationship seems to be a very complicated one. From reading both poems, I would say that Plath wants to be close with her father and has some amount of affection towards him. However, the negative aspects of their relationship seem to almost consume what good there is. Plath calls her father by a casual and endearing term “Daddy” inste…[Read more]

Like Deborah pointed out, I agree about the ideal of “Self-disclosure”. I agree with her observation about how the poem “recreates what prose has meant until now.” However, I believe in starting the line off with “to” (1) that Ginsberg is hear trying to explain the reasoning behind explaining of the circumstances of all of “Whos” in the poem. De…[Read more]

Howl by Allen Ginsberg is a long and at first glance, overwhelming poem. The first section of the poem seems to describe (paraphrasing) “the best minds of the generation destroyed by madness.” This is noted by the first line, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness” (I 1). The speaker then goes on to say “Who” before ever…[Read more]

I do not think O’Hara tries to replicate the reader’s daily life through his poem. The poem is titled “The Day Lady Died” with “Lady” being Billie Holiday and the poem describing the day she died. I believe the poem speaks of the type of day rather than focusing on whose day it is. The day is described in details, even mentioning the time, “12:2…[Read more]

Tara sums up the main point of this poem by saying (he in reference to Hues) “he is similar to them, and how he loves America the same way they do.” She then states how hues focus is on their commonalties rather than the differences. I agree. Hues does not seem to be angry or resentful, but rather looks to the future saying “Tomorrow, I’ll be at t…[Read more]

My first initial reaction to “If I Told Him” was confusion. Reading it out loud, I had to re-read to make sure, I wasn’t the one messing up. At first thought, the use of repetition seems to be the speaker’s train of thought. As if the speaker is debating whether or not to tell the “he” of the poem. However, the line “Now actively repeat at a…[Read more]

Emily Dickinson’s “It was not Death, for I stood up” at first glance to be a poem about death or rather what death feels like. Throughout the poem Ms.Dickinson describes how the event the speaker experienced could not have been death. In the very first stanza the speaker says “It was not Death, for I stood up, And all the Dead, lie down—).…[Read more]

I believe Poe chose the Raven as the main symbol of this poem because it has been believed that a Raven is the link between the living world and the afterlife. Ravens are also darkly colored and their caws, unlike most birds, are a deeper note. When cawing, I often feel that ravens sound like they are mocking someone. So I agree with Poe’s c…[Read more]